There’s talk about that Jude Law will play Ian Curtis of Joy Division in a forthcoming biopic. That’s pretty good casting (better, for example, than Ashton Kutcher as Flash Gordon), although after 24 Hour Party People I’m not sure a Curtis biopic is really necessary (but cast Paul Bettany as Bernard Sumner and we’ll be getting somewhere.) Also in the Jude department, the trailer for Mike Nichols’s Closer is now online, and it looks pretty solid, if you can buy that anyone would actually leave Natalie Portman for Julia Roberts.
Category: Music
Born in the USA.
A few days out of date now, but still worth reading: Bruce Springsteen on the need for regime change. “It is through the truthful exercising of the best of human qualities – respect for others, honesty about ourselves, faith in our ideals – that we come to life in God’s eyes. It is how our soul, as a nation and as individuals, is revealed. Our American government has strayed too far from American values. It is time to move forward.”
Solar Powered.
From REM.HQ: “The band officially confirmed today that the new record will be titled Around the Sun…Around the Sun will be released on Warner Bros. Records October 4th (internationally) and October 5th in the United States. The first single will be ‘Leaving New York.'” And, in other R.E.M. news, the band will be part of MoveOn’s Vote For Change Tour, with Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Jurassic 5, and many others.
Buck Mills Stipe Rieflin?
R.E.M releases some details about their forthcoming album out in October, which features new drummer Bill Rieflin (formerly of Ministry.) According to Stipe in RS, “‘there’s some stuff on here that’s pretty hard-core, and fairly political.’ The political tracks include a fleshed-out version of the Internet-only release ‘Final Straw,’ which was written prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and ‘I’m Gonna DJ,’ about the 1999 World Trade Organization riots in Seattle…[But] R.E.M. dabble in more than just politics, as Stipe characterizes ‘Leaving New York’ as a love song and ‘Wanderlust’ as a pop song.” Sounds grand.
You Tripped at Every Step.
Slate ruminates on whether lovebirds Elvis Costello and Diana Krall are lousy influences on each other. A bit mean, perhaps, but I’ve thought for awhile that a happy Elvis might mean trouble.
Beat Box Bjork/The Beasties Bash Bush.
On her upcoming album Medulla, due out at the end of the summer, Bjork goes acapella (with the aid of The Roots’ Rahzel and Faith No More’s Mike Patton.)
Found while perusing the five star RS review of the all-new (and very old skool) Beastie Boys album, To the Five Boroughs, which is very much both a post-9/11 ode to NYC and a virulently anti-Dubya album (“Put a quarter in your ass, ’cause you played yourself.”) As has been the case since Ill Communication, MCA gets a bit too preachy at times (For example, “We’ve got a president we didn’t elect/The Kyoto treaty he decided to neglect” on “Time to Build,” or “Never again should we use the A-bomb/We need an international ban on/All W.O.M.D’s gone/We need a multilateral disarm.” on “We’ve Got The.”)
Nevertheless, I think the new Beasties project is a success, redeemed by (1) the catchy mid-eighties beats and samples (Check out “Rhyme the Rhyme Well”) and (2) the unleashing of the B’s perennial secret weapon, the King Ad Rock, who seems to be having more fun in the game than the other two guys by miles. (For example, “Yo, what the falafel/You gotta get up awful early to fool Mr. Furley“ on “Oh Word”, or when he channels a mean Smooth B on “Crawl Space.”) You already know by now if the Beasties are your bag, so if you want Licensed to Ill-era beats with Hello Nasty rhymes, To the 5 Boroughs is worth picking up. But, one word of warning from “3 the Hard Way”: “If you sell our CD’s on Canal before we make ’em, then we will have no alternative but to serve you on a platter like Steak-umm“) Hey, don’t say you didn’t know.
All Over You.
“You are able to take an idea and give it form: the idea that Harlem has hands, feet are flaming, lips are cracked and country, hail hammers and skies crack poems.” In a burst of NY Times Dylanania, Jonathan Lethem reviews Dylan’s Vision of Sin, the new tome of poetry criticism by acclaimed Oxford Professor Christopher Ricks, while Lucinda Williams pays her own respects to Robert Zimmerman. And, elsewhere in the music-themed Book Review this week, Time politico and Primary Colors author Joe Klein proclaims his fondness for Wilco.
No secrets to conceal.
“Popular culture usually comes to an end very quickly. It gets thrown into the grave. I wanted to do something that stood alongside Rembrandt’s paintings.” Via reader Jeff some time ago, Bob Dylan opens up about his songwriting process.
Gotta Travel On.
“The creepiest on-screen clone army of 2003 wasn’t The Matrix’s league of Agent Smiths at all, but Masked and Anonymous‘s cast of Bob Dylans. He was everybody, everywhere. Or, rather, everybody was him.” Via my friend Mark, an intriguing take on Bob Dylan’s recent run, including M&A, Live 1964, and the new book on Blood on the Tracks. (No Victoria’s Secret, however.) Also in Dylan news, by way of Absolute Piffle, Bob’s apparently also gotten into the wine business. Lingerie, wine…are Dylan-brand scented candles next?
Bras of Spanish Leather.
Well, I see you got your brand new leopard-skin pill-box linens… Good friend Seth Stevenson holds forth on the Dylan Victoria’s Secret ad. I found this particular tidbit quite interesting: “Asked in 1965 what might tempt him to sell out, Dylan replied: ‘Ladies undergarments’.” Hmmm…Well, now that Bobby D has fallen for Victoria, will Ray Davies be next?